The Literature Book

43

See also: The Epic of Gilgamesh 20 ■ Mahabharata 22–25 ■ Iliad 26–33 ■ Aeneid 40–41 ■ Lancelot, the Knight of

the Cart 50 –51 ■ Njal’s Saga 52–53 ■ Cantar de Mio Cid 56–57 ■ The Divine Comedy 62–65 ■ The Lord of the Rings 287

HEROES AND LEGENDS

people there, including several

historical figures from around

500 ce. It tells of the life and exploits

of a Geatish warrior, Beowulf, who

comes to the aid of Hrothgar, king

of the Danes, to rid the land of the

monster Grendel and then Grendel’s

mother. Beowulf progresses from a

brash young adventurer to become

a respected king of the Geats,

following Hrothgar’s advice to

“Incline not to arrogance, famous

warrior!” His final battle is to save

his own people from a dragon.

Both epic and elegy

In addition to the story of a

monster-slaying hero, and the battle

of good and evil, the poem deals

with themes of loyalty and brotherly

love, the ephemeral quality of

life, and the danger of pride and

arrogance in the face of humanity’s

inevitable doom. The English writer

and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien argued

that Beowulf is as much an elegy

as an epic, mournful as well as

heroic; not just a lament for the

death of the eponymous hero,

but also a nostalgic elegy for

a dying way of life, and of our

struggles against fate.

Although the manuscript of

Beowulf was preserved in the late

10th- or early 11th-century Nowell

Codex, it was regarded as simply

a historical artifact until the 19th

century, when the first translations

into modern English were made.

Not until the 20th century, largely

due to Tolkien’s championing of

the work, was its literary merit

recognized. Beowulf has now been

translated countless times into

many languages, and in addition to

its popularity in its own right, the

poem has influenced much recent

fantasy literature. ■

Poetry in Old English

Beowulf is in the form of an

epic poem—3,182 lines long—

in a declamatory (forcefully

expressed) style and using

idiosyncratic Anglo-Saxon

poetic devices.

Most strikingly, unlike the

rhyme schemes of modern verse,

Old English poetry is typically

written in a form of alliterative

verse. Each line is divided into

two halves, which are linked not

by the rhyming of the ends of

words, but by the similar sounds

of the beginnings of words or

syllables. The two halves of

each line are often divided by

a caesura, or pause, effectively

marking them as an alliterative

couplet. Another feature is a

metaphorical device known as a

kenning: a figurative compound

word in place of a less poetic

single word, such as hildenaedre

(“battle-serpent”) for “arrow.”

Devices such as these pose

problems for the translator into

modern languages, especially

given the richness of allusion

in Old English.

h r o n r aˉ d

“whale-road”

= sea

heofoneswynne

“sky-joy”

= the dawn

hildeswat

“battle-sweat”

= blood

hildewulf

“battle-wolf”

= warrior

wægflota

“wave-floater”

= ship

sólarborð

“sun-table”

= sky

uhtsceaða

“twilight-scather”

= dragon

weorðmyndum

“mind-worth”

= honor

Old English

kennings

Derived from the Old Norse

word kenna (“to know” or “to

perceive”), a kenning is a type

of metaphor that uses a

compound or figurative phrase

to replace a common noun—

for example, resulting in

“battle-sweat” instead

of “blood.”

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